Blood Diamond
by Shiro Ryuu
Summary: Another one of those pesky little [Rosiel x Katan] plot bunnies that I’m always getting. In which Rosiel attempts to puzzle out the true allure of diamonds – is it in their sparkling surfaces, or do people really love them for their bloody pasts...?


**AN:** Though I haven't actually seen the movie whose title I just nicked, I've had the whole diamond issue on my mind for a while now, and I've also been dying to write another one of my infamous short, pointless Rosiel/Katan one-shots. Tonight all that was mixed with the first chapter of Gorgeous Carat, and this was born :D Feel free to point out any typos, I posted in rather a hurry (as usual)...

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**Blood Diamond**

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It was that golden time of the evening when shafts of sunlight slanted through the trees at low angles and the air was still. Honeyed light seeped through the west window of Rosiel's office to pool lazily on the rich red carpet, and it seemed to illuminate every fiber from the inside. Katan frowned around the lavishly decorated room with an expression in limbo somewhere between irritation and concern; he knew he'd heard his master's voice telling him to come in, and yet-

"Come look at this, Katan," came a reverent whisper from the next room.

Without even thinking about it, Katan allowed the hand holding the report he'd come to read to drop to his side as he crossed the office floor.

Rosiel reclined on a couch amidst a small pile of plush and finely upholstered cushions with his back to a large western-facing window that looked out over gardens. He used one arm to prop himself up; the other curved out before him to suspend a glittering gemstone for his minute examination. "Isn't it tragic?" he murmured, and the stone twisting on its chain brightened his shadowed face.

"Tragic?" Katan repeated, arching an eyebrow.

"Mm-hm." Rosiel turned a finger and sent the gem spinning; flecks of gold careened across his face. "It's so _beautiful_, isn't it? A 100–carat diamond, the genuine artifact-" he giggled as it twirled slowly to a halt, "-don't worry, I just wanted to see one; I'll send it back to Earth soon." Katan grimaced, hoping against hope that he hadn't taken it from anywhere where it would be missed - but he said nothing, and Rosiel glanced over at him.

"For as long as there has been greed, humans have coveted these stones. Those who are well off would think nothing of giving up enough money to pay for a month's food for one of these – but for what, really? It glitters quite prettily, and yet..." He sighed, as the sparkle drew his attention back, and it pained Katan to see the expression that the harsh reflected sunlight illuminated.

"But they are so rare," the cherub suggested carefully. "A gem like that one is truly one of a kind..."

"Wrong!" Rosiel shouted, and laughed bitterly. "Didn't you know, they can make them in laboratories now. They could make a stone that was a perfect duplicate of this one-" he jerked the chain for emphasis, and the little spots of light scattered wildly all over his body, "-if it could be told apart from the original at all, it would only be because it had _less_ flaws! And yet, though it would in fact be _more_ beautiful, no sensible human would pay half as much for it, since it was made so easily." He looked over at Katan again, and this time the younger man found that he could not look away. "Because this dead lump of stone has a bloody history of greed dating back centuries, they value it so much more. This stone is an _ugly_ thing; why can't they see...?"

The chain slipped through his fingers, sending the huge gem bouncing to the floor where it rolled under the couch, but Katan paid it no mind as Rosiel raised his slender hands to his face. He had eyes only for his master as he wrapped his arms around the great angel's shaking form and whispered sweet nothings – 'oh, my lord, you are so beautiful, your hair is starlight' – and yet it seemed to do no good; Rosiel sobbed himself to sleep.

Katan eventually laid the slumbering man out on the couch with a resigned manner, and draped his coat over him to ward off the coming evening chill. Just as he stood to leave, he noticed how, even in sleep, a faint tense frown drew Rosiel's eyebrows together – and he wished he had reminded the man of the other reason why people bought diamonds.

_Yes, perhaps it is a rather shallow act... and yet the fact remains; sometimes they do not buy these stones to better their own lot in one way or another - out of greed – sometimes they truly want nothing more than to give the one they love some sign of the depth of their feelings. And though nothing can ever wash away a bloody past, I do not think that you should utterly discount something so... beautiful._

**Owari**


End file.
